CVE-2026-20173
MEDIUM 5.8A vulnerability in Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to exhaust system resources, causing a denial of service (DoS) condition. This vulnerability exists because rate limiting was improperly applied to some protocols. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a high rate of UDP or TCP connections to a data plane interface on an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause instability to various routing and control plane protocols through some packet loss and temporary disruptions, causing a DoS condition. This DoS condition will clear without manual intervention soon after the high rate of traffic is stopped.
No known exploitation, public exploit, or elevated probability at this time. Track for changes.
Exploitation likelihood
0.4%chance of exploitation in 30 days · 30th percentile
Impact if exploited
5.8CVSS 3.1 · MEDIUM
- ConfidentialityNone
- IntegrityNone
- AvailabilityLow
What an attacker needs
- ✓Access: Reachable over the network — no local access needed
- ✓Privileges: No account or privileges required
- ✓User interaction: No user interaction needed
- ✓Complexity: No special conditions — reliably repeatable
✓ lowers the bar for an attacker · ⚠ raises it
Proof of concept & exploit code
- github-search Search GitHub for public PoC repos
Test against your own equipment
curl -s https://vulnpedia.com/cve/CVE-2026-20173/poc.jsonMachine-readable PoC index for this CVE (for automation).Listed for defensive triage, patch verification, and authorized testing on systems you own. Machine-readable: /cve/CVE-2026-20173/poc.json
Weakness (CWE)
- CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L
All CVSS metrics
- MEDIUM 5.8 v3.1 · CNA Primary
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L - MEDIUM 5.8 v3.1 · NVD Secondary
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L